Here We Are Now
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day 1270a. Making their first vlog entry was one thing, but now that it's been posted, they have to wonder how others will react when they see it. - Rent series


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 60th cycle. Now cycle 61!_

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_**This is a shift day. **There are two updates today._

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**"Here We Are Now"  
Rachel/Puck, New Directions & Rent cast/crew  
Project No Day But Today series  
_(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)_  
**

They had posted their first vlog on Friday afternoon. That way, as Puck had pointed out, it would give them the weekend for the word to build, and come Monday morning they would know where they stood. He could imagine Rachel sitting by the computer, keeping track of the view counts. That was how she had been when he'd left on Friday afternoon. He had kissed the side of her head, telling her not to stay up too late. He'd been granted a 'uh-uh' while her eyes remained glued to the screen. "Please?" he insisted.

"I know, I won't, I swear," she rubbed at her eyes, looking at him.

"I like that you think so," he told her before heading off.

He had called her later that night, and she had reported about forty views. "Most of those are probably the rest of us, I sent the link out to the cast and crew," she had explained.

"Rachel, go to bed," he sighed.

He woke up the next morning to a handful of text messages. By the timestamps, he could see she must have gotten up before six. Each message was spaced about an hour apart, so he could clock the spike in the view count at somewhere between 9:34 and 10:27am.

By Sunday night, the video had done its job of getting people's attention. The comments would vary. Not minding 'spams and trolls,' as Puck had told her, the dislikes were far outweighed by curiosity and approval. He would tell her to put aside that first group and to focus on the rest, but she welcomed them. The way she had it, if she couldn't handle the critique, then they wouldn't get anywhere.

She was thrilled about the positive response though, he could tell. This had been where she had hoped for this to go all along, not the wide public knowledge part, but the approval of those nearby. The others were bonus. All this time they had grown this project out of nothing, out of secrets and hiding, but the endgame was always to have people see what they had done. Now not only did they have this, but they actually had support from the school, funding…

As thrilled as she was though, she was scared, too, and he didn't stray too far on that one either. Things could still go wrong. One bad move and they could lose it all, the funding, the team, the whole show. They had given too much of themselves to see that happen. He wouldn't let it go down like this. He was a part of it, too, and he would make damn sure they saw it to the end.

Monday morning, he had waited for her in front of school so they could go in together. As he stood there, he was passed by some of their cast and crew. They had been keeping up with the statistics, too. Some of them were concerned about just who this would reach, others were infuriated about the hateful comments. Santana had seen her fury particularly stoked by 'some guy with a death wish in Arizona.' Artie had come around with a grin on his face, which Puck knew probably had to do with the girl – they assumed so at least – who had gushed on about 'the cutie in the wheelchair.' Most of them were excited about how many people had seen and were still finding the video. About every department head came at him with a suggestion for their next video, which would have to be filmed in a day or two. He had told them to prepare a presentation to give him and Rachel by the end of the day.

When she had finally arrived, she looked nervous. "Have you talked to anyone? The outsiders? Did they like it? Are they mad? Should we just pack up and leave Lima?" she asked, coming up to him.

"Breathe, we're doing fine," he told her, offering his hand before they went into the school.

It was easy to pick out most of the people who had seen the video. They would see him and Rachel and watch them go. Some said and did nothing, some smiled, some nodded, some rolled their eyes. As responses went, they could take it.

"Maybe we should have told Schuester, and Figgins," she had pointed out.

"You're going to think of another way this could go wrong every time you stop to think," he frowned.

"I know, I know," she sighed.

Mr. Schuester had come to them and said he thought the new video was a good idea. He had also explained how Figgins had not actually seen that video when he had arrived at McKinley that morning, but that he had seen it since, courtesy of Coach Sylvester telling him about it. She had probably figured this would get them shut down. But Principal Figgins had loved it, applauding the attention it brought to the school and the potential it had to boost their budget.

By the end of the day, Rachel's worries had been erased away one by one. Any of those who would opt to make their hate vocal were nothing she wasn't used to, and she had Puck to back her up if it ever got ugly, which it didn't. Then there would be those who brought praise along with a request to become involved somehow. It was easy to weed out the ones who only wanted their fifteen minutes of fame without actual participation, but then after those were gone, there were some actual candidates. There were already so many of them that it was hard to imagine how they could feature anyone else or even need them, but Rachel would always be courteous and say she would consider the offer.

What she had wanted to see almost more than anything else was how the cast and crew would respond, particularly those who had opted out of appearing. No one had made an outright request to change their status, but she would swear she could see the start of change in them. She was already trying to think of ways to make their introductions interesting. What they knew for sure though was that they had people's attention. Now they just had to hold it until the show premiered.

THE END

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******A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
************always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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